A Literary Life

Time’s Arrow (Martin Amis)

So the story moves backward… It sounds like a simple enough, oft-tried concept in post-modern writing. Geez, I mean Pulp Fiction did that, right? is what many might ask. The same thought cropped into my mind when I read the premise (It seemed an artificial constraint, an experiment in style, which is always interesting but often badly done), so I don’t blame naysayers for their doubt of the premise’s value. However, this book — regardless of the fact that it was published in 1991 — is unrivaled (in my small experience), unique, insightful and uses the concept of time moving in reverse to establish a truly moving and intellectual premise.

We begin at death, of course, and it takes a while to grow into the mind and world of our main character — a doctor with an obvious secret, a palpable weight around his neck despite his newly acquired life. (Well, he does begin as dead.) We grow into that mind with the narrator, a separate character who is unnamed and unknown even to himself, who witnesses the world mute and impotent through the doctor’s eyes. Because the author takes the concept of the reverse flow of time so seriously and also thanks to the narrator’s innocent anonymity, we see the world in a whole new light. Relationships begin with fights, progress through sex and niceties, only to wind up with the participants slowing backing away from acquaintance. So does the thankful patient get worse as the doctor shoves part of a windshield through his face. The patient then walks out of the hospital angry and upset, waiting for a car accident to put him back together again — the doctor fucks him up, a car accident makes him whole again. So do dead ants heal themselves when they come in contact with a human boot.

“Never watching where they are going, the people move through something prearranged, armed with lies. They’re always looking forward to places they’ve just come back from, or regretting things they haven’t yet done. They say hello when they mean goodbye. Lords of lies and trash — all kings of crap and trash. Signs say No Littering — but who to? We wouldn’t dream of it. Government does that, at night, with trucks, or uniformed men come sadly at morning with their trolleys, dispensing our rubbish, and shit for the dogs.”

Imagine the description of eating, of shitting. Or of money, which seems to be given to us wherever we go.

Now, imagine when back in time our main character will take us. I hate to be a spoiler, I really do, but I must hint that at some point, the world will again make sense to the narrator. At some major point in history, we will see our main character heal instead of hurt. We will see his secret and witness a point in time that is so vital, so visceral, that the clock of time maybe should have stopped and turned around on its axis.

Time’s Arrow was gripping, deep and artful. Sometimes the arrow hit the mark so hard that I was forced to stop reading for a moment, put the book down due to an overwhelming and revelatory emotion. It’s a wrench in the mental works I will never forget and also an example of literary artifice, some of which can be clunky and silly no matter how talented the author, pulled off brilliantly with wit, poise and insight.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars – Buy the hardcover

5 out of 5 Star Books, Fiction |